Phantasm

look in the mirror/phantasm
scratch words into the dermal layer/fantasies
barefoot pliés leave dust on the naked floor/fantôme

I became a two headed creature, with many graceless feet. Strands of muscle chainéd into the
afterlife, retiring inside my vena cava. My dreams softened and I found a different way to be
female. This skin found new means to communicate.

At night I resurrect myself in theatre seats, clenched feet shoulders flexed. This language yellows
as hieroglyphs beneath my eyelids. Limbs twitch with remembering. Asleep, our tissues trickle
down and our bones make one skeleton. This is the speech in which I am fluent. Some of my
nerves cease and others extend-

into sugared hallucinations
submerge/emerge
we do our own skinless dance

Athena G. Csuti is a writer and chronic over-achiever at the University of Calgary. Her poetry and prose have been featured on ditch, Horror Bound, and The Puritan. She has had articles on Flurt!, The Peach, and Fem2pt0. Follow her on Twitter: @AthenaGenevieve.